Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-9pm4c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T09:18:41.224Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mesopotamian Gardens

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

D. J. Wiseman
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Tribute must be paid to Richard Barnett for his contributions, inter alia, to the interpretation of many of the scenes on the Assyrian sculptures. His studies have drawn attention to the detailed information which may be drawn from this important source. In many conversations with me as a colleague in the British Museum he showed particular interest in the Assyrian landscape and representation of nature. Thus he identified the Assyrian garden in the reliefs of Ashurbanipal's N. Palace at Nineveh (Plate XXXIIIa). In this the garden is drawn as planned around a hill, or high feature, on top of which is a garden house. Watering was by aqueduct and channels arranged so that in the downhill flow no material part was inaccessible to irrigation. Trees which provided some shade, also served as supports for vines planted between them. In the Assyrian tradition temples also had similar gardens associated with them.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 33 , December 1983 , pp. 137 - 144
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Barnett, R. D., Sculptures from the North Palace of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh (1976), p. 14, pl. XXIIIGoogle Scholar.

2 Oppenheim, A. L., “On Royal Gardens in Mesopotamia,” JNES 24 (1965), p. 330Google Scholar; cf. 2 Kings 9:27.

3 Luckenbill, D. D., The Annals of Sennacherib (1924), 151Google Scholar, No. XV; cf. No. XI.

4 Borger, R., Die Inschriften Asarhaddons (1956), § 27, p. 61 f.Google Scholar, Ep. 22 ll. 1–34.

5 Oppenheim, loc. cit., 329.

6 GIŠ.SAR, Sum kiri6, and for the reading kiri x for SAR see Powell, M., ZA 62 (1972), 189 ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Oppenheim, loc. cit., 331.

8 TCL III, 223.

9 TCL XIll, 235:2; 240:3.

10 Gilgamcsh XI, 306.

11 Nylander, C., Ionians in Pasargadae (1970), p. 114Google Scholar.

12 Schmidt, E., Persepolis IGoogle Scholar, pls. 21, 24, fig. 3.

13 Grayson, A. K., Babylonian Historical–Literary Texts (1975), p. 64, i 13, 17Google Scholar.

14 BIN II, 71:9; MDP 23 167:7; PBS 1/2 28:7, royal official in charge of gardens at Opis.

15 BBSt no. 36. ii. 11.

16 ZA 53 (1959), 238Google Scholar:4.

17 BIN I 70:14(NB letter).

18 AOB I: XVII. 1.21; XX. 7.5; 23.4; cf. ABL 140, 142.

19 Iraq 11 (1949), p. 131 No. 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20 GCCI II, 64:15.

21 It could equally refer to the Elamite region of KURHamäni; cf. Barnett, op. cit., pls. XVI–XIX.

22 ABL 65:17; 375 r. 8.

23 Luckenbill, D. D., Annals of Sennacherib (1924), p. 101, ll. 57–60; p. 111, vii, 53–7Google Scholar.

24 Ibid. p. 153,1.23.

25 Ibid. p. 116, viii 64.

26 Ibid. p. 114, viii 17–21.

27 Ibid. p. 112, vii 88; STT 372, 11 (JNES 26, 198Google Scholar).

28 BSOAS 19 (1959), 317–18Google Scholar.

29 Luckenbill, op. cit., p. 115, ll. 53–63.

30 ABL 995.

31 JNES 24 (1965), 33Google Scholar.

32 ARI II (1976), 41Google Scholar.

33 ABL 427.

34 Luckenbill, op. cil., p. 137, ll. 33–35. Possibly to be translated “orchards of joy” (Heb. śôś).

35 Biblical Archaeologist, 42 (1979), 168–70Google Scholar.

36 For the ascription of these passages to Cleitarchus see Pearson, L., The Lost Histories of Alexander (1960), pp. 230–1Google Scholar; and for the dating Badian, E., “The Date of Clitarchus”, Proceedings of the African Classical Associations, 8 (1965), pp. 5–11Google Scholar.

37 Nagel, W., “Where were the ‘Hanging Gardens’ located in Babylon?”, Sumer 35 (1979), 241–2Google Scholar.

38 MDOG 110 (1978), 19–28Google Scholar.

39 Burstein, S. M., The Babylonian Berossus (SANE 1/5 1978), p. 27Google Scholar.

40 Josephus, F., Contra Apionem I. 19 (Whiston p. 613)Google Scholar; Antiq. Jud. X. 11Google Scholar.

41 W. Nagel, loc. cit., p. 242.

42 Strabo XVI 1,5.

43 Koldewey, R., The Excavations at Babylon (1914), pp. 98–100Google Scholar.

44 Unger, E., Babylon: Die Heilige Stadt (1931), pp. 216–22Google Scholar; Krischen, F., Weltwunder der Baukunst in Babylonien und Jonien (1956), Tf. 6–11Google Scholar.

45 Alwan, K., “The Vaulted Structures or the so-called “Hanging Gardens”, Sumer 35 (1979), 134–6Google Scholar.

46 Weidner, E. F., Mélanges Syriens offerts à M. René Dussaud II (1939), pp. 923–35Google Scholar.

47 Nagel, loc. cit., 242.

48 Koldewey, op. cit., p. 126, Fig. 76; WVDOG 55 Tafel 12.

49 Koldewey, op. cit., p. 132, Fig. 81 (G=Moat); Bergamini, G., “Levels of Babylon Reconsidered”, Mesopotamia XII (1977), 128–9Google Scholar.

50 Koldewey, ibid. (note B on Fig. 81 denotes wells outside walls). For an ancient hydraulic system cf. ibid., p. 91.

51 Langdon, S. H., Die neubabylonischen Königsinschriften (1912), p. 106 ii 24Google Scholar, cf. p. 86 ii 16.

52 Diodorus II. 10. Translation by Oldfather, C. H., Loeb Classical Library, 1960Google Scholar.

53 CAD V (1956), 70Google Scholar. This was also the location of the later Persian apadana, so there is no need with Nagel (loc. cit., 241) to suppose that they may have “erected a substitute garden in the area of the ‘arched building’”.

54 The plan is adapted from G. Bergamini, loc. cit., fig. 76, Cf. also Unger's plan in WVDOG 48 Tafel 61.

55 Bergamini, loc. cit., 136–9.

56 Iraq XXVII (1965), 7Google Scholar v. 2–22.

57 Iraq XIV (1952), 33Google Scholar ll. 38–48.

58 Postgate, J. N., The Governor's Palace Archive (=CTN II, 1973), pp. 239–40Google Scholar, ll. 48–52 but reading pi-ia-q [i] for piaz [i], “mouse/squirrel?”.

59 Ibid., p. 157, No. 240, 5–6.

60 Cf. Esther 1:5, 11.

61 CAD V (1956), 44–5Google Scholar.

62 Postgate, op. cit., pp. 157–8, Nos. 139–40; cf. p. 197, No. 198 which indicates that size and age were also given.

63 Ibid., pp. 210–11, No. 215; Ebeling, E., Parfümrezepte und kultische Texte aus Assur (1950) pp. 2–13Google Scholar.

64 Zaccagnini, C., The Rural Landscape of the Land of Arraphe (1979), pp. 119–53Google Scholar, espec. pp. 127–8.

65 Postgate op. cit., pp. 98–9;cf. No. 19.

66 Iraq 32 (1970), 39Google Scholar.

67 BM. 466226; CT XIV 50Google Scholar; Brinkman, J. R., “Merodach-Baladan II” in Studies Presented to A. Leo Oppenheim, June 7, 1964 (1964), p. 52Google Scholar; ZA 6 (1891), pp. 289–98Google Scholar; RLA III (1951–1971), p. 149Google Scholar sub Garten.

68 Zaccagnini op. cit., p. 128.

69 Contra Oppenheim, A. L., Ancient Mesopotamia (1964), p. 312Google Scholar.

70 Kramer, S. N., History Begins at Sumer (1956), pp. 110–14Google Scholar.

71 Grayson, A. K., Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles (1975), p. 155 ll. 31–6Google Scholar.

72 Civil, M., “Herbs and Gardens Four Thousand Years Ago”, The Herbalist 28 (1962), pp. 21–4Google Scholar.

73 LÚ.GIŠS.KIRIx; Gadd's proposed lakurippu (RA 63 (1969), 2Google Scholar) has not found favour; cf. Powell, M. A., JAOS 97 (1977), 586Google Scholar (Sum.nukirik; Akkad. nukarribum from *murakkibum), and Edzard, , ZA 71 (1981), 287Google Scholar (nukarippu a foreign word).

74 LH §§ 60–62; MSL I, 4 iii 23, 33.

75 E.g. YOS 12 441; BM. 92744 (unpublished).

76 Gelb, I. J., St. Or. 46 (1976), 69Google Scholar (igi.nu.du8) at Chagar Bazar.

77 nukaribbatu, YOS 13 144:2; UET 5 494: 18.

78 Weidner, op. cit., p. 927 (A31, r. 22).

79 Driver, G. R., Expository Times 56 (1945), p. 318CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

80 ARM 9 24 ii 6; 10 95 7, 9; 14 61 r. 2′; AT 165:3; 244:8.

81 Cf. Aromatic and choice plants watered from pool (Song of Solomon 4:12–16). 1 Kings 21:1–2 for the royal garden near the palace in Samaria.

82 E.g. Manasseh (2 Kings 21:18).

83 ršp gn (UT 1088:3); il gn (Ugaritica VII (1968), pp. 10, 20, 26Google Scholar).

84 Shafer, A., Sumerian Sources of Tablet XII of the Epic of Gilgamesh (University of Pennsylvania Ph.D. dissertation 1963), 1. 35, p. 30 n. 1Google Scholar; cf. UET I 41 a; III 37.

85 ARM I 136:5.

86 Al-Fouadi, , Enki's Journey to Nippur: The Journey of the Gods, (1969), p. 51, ll. 76–80Google Scholar.

87 SBH 145 ii 24, cf. p. 22; KAR 65 12 28.

88 ZA 43 (1936), 18:64Google Scholar.

89 Gallery, L. M., “The Garden of Ancient Egypt” in Schmandt-Besserat, D., Immortal Egypt (1978), pp. 43–9Google Scholar.